Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
Have you ever tried adapting classic aliens into D&D? I thought that maybe to adapt Grey Aliens I could modify the statblock of a goblin giving it the commoner's armor class of 10, the Mind Flayer's psionics, intelligence of 19 and wisdom of 17 and replace it's weapon with a laser pistol. For the Tall Greys I could modify the Drow statblock in a similar manner but give it a laser rifle instead. For Reptoids you can modify the Lizardfolk statblock with intelligence 19, wisdom 17 and replace it's weapons with a laser rifle. I don't know how I would adapt UFOs into Spelljammer though.
Have you ever looked at the various kinds of Star Spawn?
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
The fraals (little grey aliens) were canon in AD&D 2nd Ed and even some alien PC species from Alternity/Star*Drive were reskinned for Spelljammer or appeared in Dragon Magazine as PC races.
If there is a future handbook about psionic powers, the fraals should be included among the psionic PC species.
Short answer no. What are grey aliens? I have never heard of that term. But if I want sci fi with aliens, I would look for something other then D&D.
I have not, as they don't generally fit the theme of my campaigns.
However, if you were going to adapt classic sci-fi aliens into D&D, I feel like you are going about it backwards. Saying "Reptoid aliens are like lizards, so we use the lizardfolk stat block and give them a ray gun" is just reskinning the stat block. Which can be fine! But I feel like the point is more to make a creature that elicits the same feeling as what you are trying to adapt.
What is the feeling you want the players/characters to feel when encountering these adaptations, and how does that read as "alien" to them? The reason we humans have such a reaction to things like the Grey aliens is because they are almost human, but a bit off. They are bipedal, have two arms, two legs, a round head and eyes in the front. But the things that are off are what make them creepy and "alien": the overly-large, black eyes, the too-long fingers, the tiny or non-existent mouth. They are almost just like us, but just different enough to feel unnerving.
I think that's what you want to focus on if you are going to try to adapt them into your world. There are already different-looking Species in D&D in most worlds, so just having "grey-skinned large-eyed creatures" won't feel alien necessarily. They just become another monster with a stat-block. What can you do to make them feel different enough, but still recognizable, that gives the players that feeling they might when encountering something truly alien?
D&D has never had an issue with stealing from whatever sources any particular DM found interesting. I probably wouldn't bother with either Greys or Reptoids, as they're mostly redundant with mind flayers and yuan-ti, but there are plenty of alien monsters that are perfectly usable in D&D (I've used Zerg, for example). I recommend using creatures that have interesting images that you can share with the PCs.
Greys are the stereotypical alien with a thin usually grey colored humanoid body, teardrop shaped eyes and a small mouth
Thank you, I have never heard of them being called greys.
How is a Reptoid alien anything like a Yuan-ti?
Yuan-Ti Purebloods fill most of that fantasy once you add lasers and ships.
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
No, that doesn't really sound suitable to me.
Well, reptoids are already just a reskin on Robert E Howard's serpent people, they aren't particularly 'alien' to start with. The required change to yuan-ti to make them proper reptoids is just "in their shapechanger trait, add the ability to change to human".
Reptoids are from actual UFO lore they weren't inspired by anything.
Reptoids are from the reptilian conspiracy theory, popularized by David Icke.
No, they were in alien abduction stories people just like to bunch those things together. That conspiracy theory says that the reptilians are descended from dinosaurs. The reptoid alien sightings are their own thing.
Well, yes, people combined the reptilian conspiracy theory with alien abduction conspiracy theories, but that doesn't make reptoids not an example of the reptilian conspiracy theory.
Aliens? You mean Githyanki and Githzerai, right?
I thought the OP meant xenomorphs (the Geiger kind) and was coming to say that those exist in D&D too - in prior editions they were called Kythons.
Grays are a bit of a taller order - D&D has a few species that come close to their design, like Asherati and Dromites. (If there's a closer one I can't recall it off the top of my head.) Pathfinder just skipped the middle man and put Grays into their Bestiary.
1: Aliens are literally present in the setting, from Gith to Giff to Mindflayers, so adding one more is not a stretch. Just remix them a little so they have their own flavor.
2: You don't have to stick too hard to the lore if you are making them TRULY alien. They might fully use technology and the caster characters are utterly baffled that these magic like effects are happening without magic. Their Ships might not work like spelljamers at all because again, technology not magic.
3: see what your players might be into. It is their opinion that matters most. Would they have fun with it.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Aliens: Yes, although I never had to work hard to do it, as I use all D&D matierial.
Xill are basically the Xenomorph from Aliens. Astral Elf is basically the same as most advanced humaniod aliens, think Vulcans. Githyanki are the Greys (only green), Neogi are another alien horror.
Aliens are kind of simple in D&D, plus we have Spelljammer which is the space adventure. Although get the 3rd edition or AD&D version.